At 15, while she was studying foreign languages and modern dance, she started attending the Italian school for performing arts, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of Rome. The director Vittorio De Sica chose her for her debut role in "Maddalena, zero in condotta". At 19, she met her future husband, the director Alberto Lattuada, 11 years her senior, who chose her for a role in a movie taken from the renowned novel "Gli indifferenti", by Alberto Moravia. The movie was never realized, but they eventually married a few months later, in the month of April, 1945. In the 50s she took part mainly in theatre plays, and afterwards some TV fictions. She also founded a co-op with her husband, the director Federico Fellini and his wife Giulietta Masina: together they realized Fellini's debut movie: "Luci del varietà" .
Daughter of actor Ugo Attanasio and actress Maria Pia Attanasio.
